


Heal Together

by Anonymous_Astronaut



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, First Kiss, Five Years Later, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Getting Together, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:15:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25600456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous_Astronaut/pseuds/Anonymous_Astronaut
Summary: A look into the lives of Smellerbee and Longshot five years after the war ended.
Relationships: Longshot & Smellerbee (Avatar), Longshot/Smellerbee (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	Heal Together

**Author's Note:**

> Smellerbee is trans and I will die with that headcannon. Longshot rly said trans rights <3 It doesn't rly come up in this fic tho.

It was her seventeenth birthday.

Smellerbee wasn’t sure if Longshot knew that or not, she was almost certain she’d never said anything about it. And it wasn’t like there was anyone else around to mention it -no one else knew. Everyone who had been around the last time she celebrated her birthday was dead, or better off forgotten. Nevertheless, it was that time of year again. And she wasn’t sure if she should tell him or not.

She and Longshot had been scraping up a living in a tiny cottage they'd managed to get in an Earth Kingdom town. The town was too big for either of their liking, but at least their place was on the outskirts. It was quiet and cozy, and it did the job of keeping the rain out. They'd already been there a year and a half, and it was growing on her.

Still, part of her wanted to just go live in the woods already. Now that she had a chance to build a real life without the threat of The Fire Nation burning it to a crisp, it seemed like a waste to pass that up. Plus, it was pretty nice to not have to hunt for food all the time, or rob people. That didn't stop her from missing living in the woodland canopy though.

Longshot was still hunting, but now they were selling what he caught. Now he did it as a _job_ , which felt a lot more like living and a lot less like survival. The local butcher paid well for deerbeevers and pheasantfoxes, and Longshot got a bit of peace and quiet while he earned money. He hunted with respect and gratitude for the lives he took, having lived enough hardship to understand survival of the fittest.

Smellerbee worked shifts taking travelers up and down a nearby river, their neighbor owned the boats and was getting too old to row them. He'd offered her the job just days after they moved in. It wasn’t the best, but he was a kind old man and at least she got to be outside.

Today, however, she was completely free. She’d asked Bei Ling, a boy from the town who worked the boats on the days she didn’t, to cover for her birthday.

Which meant she was home, and she’d have to give some sort of explanation to Longshot as to why she wasn't on the river.

He’d be home soon, he always went hunting in the early morning and came back before lunch. She’d have to tell him why she was still here, pruning the plants in their little garden.

Would he be mad? Admittedly it was pretty hard to make him mad, and logically she knew he wouldn’t be. It'd be a stupid thing to get mad at, and he’d always been a great deal more level headed than she was. It wasn’t like she was scared of his reaction. But he’d probably be annoyed that she didn’t at least tell him ahead of time.

He’d want to give her a present or something stupid like that. Which was exactly why she hadn’t told him.

It had just been so long since she felt like something like a birthday held any significance. There'd been a war before, and it had been her entire life. Birthdays didn’t matter when you didn’t even know if you’d be alive the next day. And in the last five years since the war ended, she’d been so focused on trying to scrape up all her pieces together, she didn’t realize that life was happening around her at the same time.

She hoped Longshot would understand. It wasn’t like she knew his birthday, she didn’t even know how old he was. She was just glad she had him. So much had changed, but at least he had stayed the same. Stayed with her. They’d never even talked about it, it seemed obvious at the time. When the war ended, of course they were sticking together. Even when they drifted apart from the other members of the Freedom Fighters, that had never been in question. She was suddenly hit by the fear that someday, maybe that wouldn’t be the case.

She was so deep into her thoughts, so invested in angrily pruning her plants, that she didn’t even notice he was there until she stood to move to the next patch. She jumped.

“Oh! Hey, shit, I didn’t see you there.”

How long had he been standing there watching her? He had three dead birds draped on his back next to his quiver, bow held across his shoulders, and stood watching her curiously. When Longshot tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her, Smellerbee pretended not to know exactly what he meant.

“I’m just pruning the garden, it was looking a little droopy.” She pumped a healthy dose of fake peppiness into her voice.

His expression didn’t change a hair. She sagged in defeat.

“Yeah, okay, I took the day off, I know. Just come in.”

She turned and trudged into the house, kicking off her shoes at the door. She heard Longshot hanging up the birds he’d caught outside to take to the butcher later.

They hadn’t changed there names. She knew she never would, at least not the to the name she used to have. It had been taken from her along with everything else, and that wasn’t who she was anymore. She was happy as Smellerbee, and she couldn’t imagine Longshot going by anything else. She hadn't asked if he planned on changing it.

There were muffled footsteps behind her, and she felt his presence stop a few feet away. She turned and tried for a smile.“So, how was hunting?”

He just shook his head, not accepting the attempt at beating around the bush. She knew there was no ignoring this, he could read her like a book. His brows furrowed in a clear serious question.

“What!? No, I didn’t quit!" She jumped to reassure him, then huffed, "I just took the day off, okay!? I didn’t feel like paddling tourists around today. I didn’t ditch or anything, don’t worry.”

She swiveled towards the kitchen, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

He had always been so gentle. His slender fingers were a barely-there pressure, just enough to convince her to stop. She’d usually object to someone treating her so gently, she was tough and could handle anything, and didn't appreciate people acting like she was fragile. But she’d realized a long time ago that that was just how Longshot touched the world. Like a butterfly landing light enough not to rustle the leaf under it. Like a snake shifting silently though the grass. Simply existing in his environment without disrupting it. Not just content with silence, but part of it. He was one of the best fighters she knew, but he’d never been made for war.

His eyes searched hers deeply. She knew if she asked him to stop now, this would be his last prompt. He would act like nothing was different about the day, and wouldn’t question her again.

But this was his way of telling her he’d be worried.

She tried to glare at him but it cracked under his gaze. She couldn't be hard-headed, not towards him. “You really don’t have to worry about me.”

His eyes and a small shake of his head told her that he always would be.

Oh. And now he was being all sweet. Fine. She screwed up her face and spat the words out, throwing her arms up, hoping that would make them easier to say. “It’s my birthday Longshot. I’m seventeen, it’s my birthday and I wanted to spend it with you.” She bit her lip and opened one eye, assessing the damage. She hadn’t really meant to say that last part but what’s done is done.

His eyes had widened slightly, and he blinked. She knew him well enough to give him time to process, so she turned back towards the kitchen and walked away. His hand slid from her shoulder.

“It’s no big deal. It just seems like things are finally getting kind of normal, or what’s suppose to be normal anyway. And normal people have things like birthdays. And I didn’t wanna spend mine on a stupid boat.”

She grabbed an apple and slammed it on the counter, chopping at it with her pocket knife. “But I just feel weird, like I’m supposed to be doing something. Why should I care about how old I am, or what day I was born? It’s not like it matters. I could be making money right now but instead I’m- im- but this is what normal people are supposed to do right? I just-“

Two hands came over the counter top and covered hers, bringing them to a stop. She looked up to meet Longshot's soft brown eyes. She couldn't tear her gaze away. She wasn’t sure when her own eyes had started watering, but she tried to blink the dampness away.

She shook heard head helplessly, trying to shove down the sudden feeling of being totally lost. “I don’t think I am normal, Longshot. This house, these people, this isn’t our normal. Our normal is out there!”

Still holding her hands, he walked around the counter and pulled her towards him, only letting go of them to wrap her in a hug. She didn't move to hug him back, she just leaned her head on his shoulder. Smellerbee spoke against his shirt, just loud enough for him to hear.

“Our normal is in the fucking woods. We’re Freedom Fighters, what are we supposed to do when there’s no one left to fight?”

They’d been so busy fighting, they never stopped to think of what they’d do with their freedom once they got it. She'd been raised on war, she almost didn't feel like a person without it.

He pulled away and took her by the shoulders, looking directly in her eyes. His voice, so rare and quiet, spoke. “Heal.”

She felt the tears build up again, and this time she didn’t stop them. “I don’t think I know how.”

He nodded somberly, and she knew what he meant.

_He didn’t know either._

She turned back to the remains of the apple and hacked at it bitterly. “This is stupid. We’re supposed to be happy!”

He remained silent, and she didn’t look at him for a response.

“Everything’s supposed to be perfect, but I don’t know what I’m doing! We got what we fought for and now I don’t even know what to do with it!!”

She hated feeling helpless or useless, and right now she felt like both. She almost didn't hear him over the pound of her own heartbeat in her ears.

“Bee.”

She looked up at him through her stupid, stupid tears. She hadn’t wanted this day to turn out like this, she’d just needed a break. A break from the days that seemed to be molding together into some kind of weird dream. She hadn’t even known these thoughts were weighing on her until she was throwing them all at her best friend. “What!?” She growled at him.

Longshot’s eyes were just as gentle as the rest of him, at it made her feel ever worse for bringing this on him. He held out a hand to her, brows up in question, and his intention was obvious.

_Come with me._

She stared at him, too confused to respond right away. There was nothing around for miles but the town, and Longshot wasn’t very big on going there.

“...Uh, where?”

He just shook his head and kept his hand outstretched.

She sighed at stared down at the rage-mess of fruit she’d made. She popped an apple lobbed off chunk in her mouth, sniffed and wiped at her face.

“Yeah. Fine, I guess.”

Smellerbee still didn’t know where they were going. They had only just entered the forest when she realized Longshot hadn’t brought his bow. She almost asked if he forgot it, but it was too stupid a question. It was like someone forgetting to bring along their arms. He never went anywhere without it, yet here they were, in the woods for who knows what reason, and he hadn’t seen the need to bring it along.

Like he was trying to prove he didn't always need it anymore.

She hadn’t said much on their walk over, and Longshot, of course, had stayed silent. She didn’t mind his lack of speaking, in fact it was something she admired about him. It was just part of what made him who he was. He didn’t speak if he didn’t want to, and no one could take that from him. The two of them easily found other ways to communicate.

She remembered when he first came to join the Freedom Fighters, everyone has assumed he was just in shock. They all had their traumas, and their own ways of coping. But his silence had stayed with him, and she figured it probably would for the rest of his life. The group had just learned to adapt. She didn’t know if he’d always been that way, or if he’d stopped talking after his village burnt down, but all she knew now was that it didn’t matter. His presence would always be enough.

They were about ten minutes into the forest when he suddenly veered off the trail, waving for her to follow. Confused, she trotted through the brush after him. “Longshot, what are we doing out here?”

She didn’t get an answer, but then again, she hadn’t expected one.

He seemed to find what he was looking for, going up to a particular tree to inspect it, and beckoned for her to come closer. She peered at it. She didn’t see anything particularly special about it. She opened her mouth to speak, but surprisingly he beat her to it.

“Hang on.”

One of his arms slid around her waist, and the other pulled a rope that had been hidden and tied to the tree. Her eyes widened, and she went to speak, “Wha-“

Then she was drawn close to his side and tugged off her feet into the air. The ground spiraled away as they shot up through the leaves, her hair tossed around in the wind and clothes fluttering, and for a second she could only thing she could think was _damn he must have learned that from Jet_.

Then they landed on a tiny wooden platform, and suddenly it was like she was 12 years old again.

It was _perfect_.

The fort wasn’t big. It was just one little hut and a few walkways in between trees, a couple platforms and a half-finished open living area. But it was _home_. A pristine little echo of the place she had worked and fought and laughed and cried for. She gasped and her mouth fell open. She stood, frozen in place, taking it in like it would fade away into smoke if she blinked.

Longshots arm slid away from around her, and he spoke softly as to not make Smellerbee take her eyes off the scene to read his expression. “I was going to wait to show you until it was finished.” He didn’t need to say the rest, she knew him well enough to infer that.

_He’d changed his mind because he thought she needed it more today._

When she finally did turn her head to look up at him -he'd grow so much taller than her in the last few years- he just gazed back at her and offered a tiny smile. It said more than words ever could.

_Happy birthday._

She didn’t care that she was crying now, and she didn't care if he saw her, this was something worth crying over. She stared at it in awe, then sniffed and shoved the wetness off her face roughly. “How- how did you? When did you..?

How has he possibly had time for this? He went out hunting nearly every day, and she knew he came home with game. And the days he didn’t go were the days she had off, and he always spent them with her.

He shrugged, and reached up to grab hold of a long wire overhead. He didn’t look back as he flashed her five slender fingers and muttered, “Strict hunting limit,” before kicking off the platform and zip-lining to the hut built into the branches a few trees away.

She stared after him, smile forming on her face. Of course! The town must have a limit of how many animals you could catch per day, too keep the over-hunting to a minimum. Longshot was the best hunter she’d ever met, he probably often made it to the limit before morning was even over. Come to think of it, she’d never seen him bring in more than five catches in one day, and she knew for a fact he could get more than that. Fruitful mornings like that would leave him the rest of the day to himself. He must have decided to build this in the free time.

Shaking her head at the wiles of the archer, she grabbed the zip line and launched into the air with a whoop, happy to have the freedom of this kind of travel again. She’d missed being up among the trees, in the open air with nothing but a long drop beneath her feet. It made her feel closer to the sky.

She landed next to Longshot and punched his shoulder with a grin. “How dare you build this place without me!”

He gave her a sidelong glance.

Right, it was supposed to be a _surprise._ She threw up her hands. “Fine, fine Mr. Mysterious, you win. I’ll admit it, I’m very surprised.”

The corner of his mouth perked up, and he turned to go into the hut.

Her hand on his shoulder stopped him, along with her suddenly serious voice. “Wait, Longshot?” She waited until he glanced back before speaking, meeting his eyes. “Really, thank you. This is...amazing.”

His nod was all the response she needed.

The hut wasn’t very big, but it was furnished. There were pillows and a rug, even a little table, so obviously he’d saved up to buy these himself. She plopped down on a pillow and stretched out her legs. "Aahh, just like old times. Boy have I missed this! Who knew living in the woods was so nice, huh?”

His answer was obvious as he sat across from her.

_We did._

She laughed, falling backwards to spread out and look lazily at the ceiling. “Yeah, I guess we did know that. Why did we choose to live in town again?”

She didn’t have to look at him to know the answer, so she flapped a had as if to shut him up as if he was going to speak in the first place. “I know, I know, starting a new life, yada yada yada. We’re the Freedom Fighters, might as well live in the freedom we fought for.”

There was a light touch to her knee. She looked up to see Longshot sitting up, leaning across to get her attention. “What?”

He gave her a hard look and shook his head. She groaned and thunked her head back down. “I know that peace now doesn’t undermine the fact that we lost our whole childhoods. But we have to move on. Integrating ourselves back into society was never going to be easy, but I didn’t think it was gonna be this hard either.”

She counted the slats in the ceiling numbly, leaving it at that. The hand lingered in concern, but eventually left her knee. They stayed in an sullen silence until she decided they needed a change in subject, not wanting to simmer in a sour mood any longer. She lifted her head to peer over at him. “This place really is incredible, you have to let me help finish it.”

Longshot gave her an easy nod. Of course, that had been his plan all along hadn't it. To have the two of them expand it once the initial surprise was done.

She grinned. “Hell yeah. This is the best birthday present ever, Shot. Seriously, thanks.”

He nodded back once.

“So how old are you anyway? I doubt I can one-up this, but I gotta think of something for your birthday too.”

There was a long silence, and she shifted up a bit to see him better, expecting him to hold up his fingers as he often did with numbers. But he just started at the floor. It was so long before he answered that she almost opened her mouth to ask again, but he finally spoke.

“I don’t know.”

She sat up immediately. “What?”

He met her eyes, and the look in his gaze was clear. _He didn’t know anymore, because he’d lost track._

She paled. “Oh, uh, well when’s your birthday? We can just count up from there.”

He looked back to the floor, and it told her all she needed. _He didn’t remember._

Something cold twisted in her stomach. She tried to keep it out of her voice. “Oh, well, that’s -that's okay.”

It wasn't okay, not at all. No one's past should be that broken. But that didn't make it his fault, so it was okay for him not to know.

Usually she’d leave it at that. But she couldn’t ignore how upset he seemed by it. She could tell that it wasn’t talking about it that was bothering him, but the fact itself that he wasn't aware of his own age. There had to be a way to fix that, so after a few moments, she kept pushing. “What’s the last age you remember being?”

He looked up, surprised that she’d asked. He’s expression turned confused and anxious, and she jumped to reassure him.

“It doesn’t have to be a birthday, it can be anything, just think about a time where you remember what age you were.” She prayed this wouldn't make him feel worse, or bring up anything he'd rather keep forgotten.

He looked down again, but this time in thought rather than shame or pain. He bit his lip, and after a minute, met her gaze again. “Eight.”

Her eyes lit up, and she ignored that little spark in her chest she got whenever he spoke out loud. “Good! Good, that’s something. How long ago was that?”

He swallowed and stared at her, eyes a bit sad. _He had no idea._ She pursed her lips and thought of a different approach.

“Okay, how long was it before you joined the Freedom Fighters?”

Getting that number obviously seemed more feasible to him, as he looked to the floor again and started counting on his fingers. He disputed quickly between four and five before settling on four and holding them up.

“Four years? Okay, so that means you were about twelve when you joined. I was ten then. I’m seventeen now so that makes you...” she offered him a careful smile. “I think you’re nineteen, Longshot.”

He looked at her for a long moment, taking it in, before folding his hands in his lap and letting go of a quiet sigh.

It wasn’t exact of course. His estimate could be wrong, and they didn’t know when his birthday was so they couldn’t be sure, but it was as close as they were going to get. And it was so much better than nothing.

Smellerbee reached over and poked his shoulder. “Hey, since you don’t have a birthday-“ that was far easier to say than _since your childhood was so fucked you forgot_ , “- wanna share mine?”

His eyes grew wide, and nodded twice with the beginnings of a smile. For him, that was like shouting _yes_ at the top of his lungs.

Smelleebee grinned. “Then happy birthday, Longshot.”

They’d been working on the half-finished living area platform together for almost three hours now. Smellerbee sat back and wiped the sweat from her forehead, grinning like a lunatic at Longshot. She, much to his amusement, had wanted to start expanding their funky tree resort right away. "Man, I missed this. We’re gonna make this place perfect. We can add anything we want, and no one can tell us what to do! We don't even have to worry about hiding it from any FIre Nation troops!”

Longshot didn’t look up from sawing boards in half, but he did smile.

Smellerbee stood and stretched her arms, needing a break. She knew the archer needed one too, even if he’d never admit it. “This place have a _The Rope Swing_?” She said the words like the title of a dramatic play.

That made Longshot look up, eyes wide.

She gave an over-dramatized gasp. “What, don’t tell me you forgot!?”

A self conscious hand crept up to rub and the back of his neck, and he shrugged.

Smellerbee laughed, “You’re hopeless Longshot, that’s the most important part!! Come on, this platform can wait- let’s go build that swing!! Tell me you’ve at _least_ got some rope!”

It only took then twenty minutes to secure the massive rope Longshot had amongst his building supplies. To reach the target patch of fluffy grass, you had to take a huge leap out over the forest floor from the platform, swing between the trees, and drop down at just the right moment into the soft brush.

It looked dangerous and hard and _fun_. Perfect.

Giving it a good tug to check the strength one last time, Longshot gave her a meaningful side glance.

Smellerbee snorted, crossing her arms. “Like hell I’m letting you break this thing in first!”

He shrugged and held it out to her.

“Nah.” She shook her head and stepped forward to grab hold of the rope too. “Together.”

He gave her a sharp nod. _Together._

They stacked their hands, each fist on top of the other gripping the rope, and took a few steps back.

Smellerbee grinned, feeling her heart rattle around inside her in anticipation. She counted out loud for them both. “Okay. One...two...three!”

On three, they ran forward in synch and leaped out over the forest. There was a bit of a drop, and the rope almost tugged right out of her hands as it caught the weight and started their wide swing. She managed to hang on, but it did a number on her shoulders. Her body smacked into Longshots, and they dangled together through the arch of the swing.

She let out a whoop, and could see Longshots face scrunched up adorably in excitement next to her. Gravity took hold at the lowest curve of their swing, but they hadn’t quite made it to the grassy opening yet. She yelled out over the wind to him. “Almost there!”

It was a pretty obvious thing to say, but fun to yell anyway. Fun to feel the wind steal the words right out of her mouth, fun to hear them disappear into the air behind her.

Then, before she could think, they were over the grass, and she knew it was the right moment. All at once she was letting go and falling, and in the air with her was Longshot. For a millisecond, nothing else existed. It was just her and her best friend- the most important person to her in the world- flying in the open air, full of wind and feeling like airbenders.

Then they both hit the ground in a tangle of limbs and rolled across the clearing. Neither one really cushioned the fall of the other, they simply held on, refusing to let go. Refusing to lose the other person in the fall.

They finally rolled to a stop, covered in grass a leaves and the ideas of bruises from little sticks and rocks aching somewhere behind the curtains of adrenaline. Smellerbee had ended up on top of Longshot, who’s hat been lost in the tumble and hair had come out of its tie, now loose and wild around his head. He blinked up at the sky, chest heaving, trying to get his bearings.

Smellerbee planted her hands in the grass on either side of his head and shifted her upper body up to look down at him, shaking her hair out of her eyes as she lifted her head from his chest. Both of them were out of breath. “Woah,” she gasped, “You okay?”

His face stayed rather blank as he did a mental assessment of his limbs. Relatively unharmed, he just nodded, wide-eyed.

After a good few seconds of shocked silence while they both made sure none of their bones were broken, Longshot let out a softly amused snort, sending Smellerbee into a raucous laughing fit directly into his face.

“Holy shit, that was awesome!!” She wheezed between bouts of laughter, and she felt his chest shaking under her body and knew he was laughing to.

Still giggling noisily, she opened her eyes gazed down at her friend. He looked completely at ease, head tilted back in the grass, arms outstretched, eyes crinkled shut with mirth as he laughed. He was still just as silent as ever, but She rarely ever saw his face as expressive as it was now.

As the little silent rumbles of his chest died down, his gaze met hers and his smile was the warmest thing she’d ever seen.

It was so easy. It felt so incredibly easy and natural for her to do that she didn’t think a single thought as she leaned down and put her lips to his.

His body stiffened under her's in surprise, and her dumb stupid brain cells caught up to the rest of her just a second too late. She yanked away, met his shock gaze for just a moment, and muttered, “Oops,” before flinging herself off of him and speed walking for the trees at the edge of the clearing. She heard him scramble to his feet, and she almost broke into a run.

“Wait!”

The word froze her. Only his words had ever had the ability to do that, she was usually too stubborn to stop when she didn’t want to. But his were too rare to ignore. Besides, she had hardly ever heard him call out that loud.

She drooped when she hear him approach her, but gave him the respect of at least turning to face him. What she couldn’t do was bring herself to look to up and meet his eyes. She spoke to the grass, “I- listen I wasn’t thinkin' alright? L-look man, I donno what happened, I was just- shit, I’m so sorry Longshot, I shouldn't hav-“

“No.” His voice was just as gentle as ever, carrying little-to-no tone. He didn’t cut he off, his voice wasn’t sharp or mad. It was impossible to tell what he was feeling without looking at him, but Smellerbee couldn’t get herself to.

So she stoped talking, and just stared at the ground. Long fingers lightly found her chin, and slowly tilted it up.

She obliged and met his gaze, steeling herself for what she’d find there. She expected his dark look of disapproval, telling her she had crossed a line. Or maybe, if she was lucky, something softer, telling her he understood her mistake and that it was okay, they could still be friends.

But instead, for once, she realized with dread that she couldn’t read his expression. She couldn’t see any message he was trying to get across, she couldn’t tell what he was trying to say without words. It was like there was nothing to read, nothing to decipher.

He was just...looking at her.

She didn’t move, didn’t say a word as he looked. She didn’t dare disrupt this sudden, careful inspection. It felt like her soul was being searched.

Finally, Lonshot moved. Whatever he’d been looking for, he’d found it. His hand moved from her chin to her shoulder, and he took a single step closer. She didn’t even breathe as his head tilted down towards hers.

And he simply closed his eyes.

She looked at him then, harder than she ever had before. He was completely still, peaceful, loose hair whispering quietly around his thin face as he waited. He showed no judgement, no pretense. Only honest confidence and patience. He demanded nothing of her, was asking for nothing. He had simply given her a choice.

She knew she could walk away right now. She could slip out from his hand at her shoulder, turn and leave this clearing that now seemed void of time, and they’d never bring it up again. They would go home as if nothing had happened. He would still smile at her the same. They would still rebuild their broken childhood in these trees together. He would still soothe her from the nightmares, and he would still want her there to soothe him from his. He was giving her this option without a single string attached.

But she also knew she had another option.

And looking at him now, she knew there was no other option she’d rather take.

Hesitantly, she stepped forward. Her step broke the stillness, loud and jarring like the forest was holding its breath around them. She felt awkward and stuck and too far away and too close and nervous and messy and small.

But that had never stopped her before.

All thoughts of their surroundings or her own doubts melted as she pressed forward, and Longshot leaned in. And gently, they met in the middle.

His lips were so soft against hers. She was sure her mouth was rough and chapped, but like hell if she was stopping now. He tilted his head slightly, fitting their mouths together, and kissed her as gently as a dewdrop. She breathed softly, her exhale lightly tickling across his face, exploring this new feeling. Everything was so slow and careful, but it felt like her insides were going to explode. Like everything she knew was coming together and falling apart at the same time.

But if there was anyone she trusted to keep her from drowning in herself, it was the young man right in front of her.

Slowly, she reached out a hand and found his chest. He jolted a little, but she figured that was a good thing since his kiss became more firm. Her other hand joined the first, and she gently made her way up his form. She felt him shiver under her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer.

The light pressure of his hand, which hadn’t yet left her shoulder, disappeared, only to reappear at the small of her back, fingers spread wide as a comforting, steady presence. The other hand came up to cup her face, and his thumb smoothing over her check nearly made her melt.

Finally, they pulled away. They didn’t let go of each other, but separated enough to make eye contact.

“Woah.” Smellerbee breathed.

Longshots eyes crinkled up at the sides and he smiled.

She grinned, reveling in the silent communication between them. “Yeah me too. That’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?”

Longshot nodded, then stroked her cheek again with his thumb, gaze softening. His eyes said it all.

She blushed scarlet and looked away. “I knew that already you dork. I love you too.”

Yes, they both had a lot of healing left to do. And maybe they didn't quite know how to go about it. But she had a feeling they could figure it out together.


End file.
